Guilty Creatures
by Paper Bitch
Summary: "But it's Friday…" "I know, I'm sorry, but this is a really big deal. I really want him to like me, and I was hoping that you'd understand." He gives me a weak, begging smile. Of course, I can't say no to him, he's my best friend. Finn Odair and Iris Mellark are the best of friends; not even the perils of high school can tear them apart! Or so they thought. Modern AU.
1. Date Night: Part 1

**DATE NIGHT PART 1**

 **IRIS POV**

 _The water cools my burning skin. The summer heat is no match for time spent in the lake. Especially when I'm there with Finn. I can forget about everything, and I mean everything when I'm with him. His gentle touch is enamouring to my soul, and my senses become blinded by his presence. I could be drowning and not even notice it._

"Earth to Iris, paging Iris, do you copy?" I'm awoken from my daydreams by a familiar voice.

"What? Yes, yes, I copy. Sorry, I got lost in thought." I look around me. I'm sitting at my desk, directly next to Finn's, in Mr Abernathy's English class. Finn reaches over to my desk to turn my notebook so that he can see it better. I look down and recognise it as a drawing of the lake in the woods. Fuck, this isn't finished!

"This is pretty cool. Is it the lake?" He raises a thick, bronze eyebrow, looking up at me. I shoot him a look of disgust.

"Do you mind, Aqualad? It's not even finished." I quickly close the notebook and shove it into my bag.

"Sorry, I was just-" He's cut off by a grumbling voice.

"Is there something going on back there that's more interesting than the class's discussion over _Hamlet_? Because if it's so interesting, we'd all love to join you." Mr Abernathy stares the two of us down for a few seconds before Finn chimes in with his charming tone.

"Nothing that's not pertaining to _Hamlet_ , sir. We were just talking about how it's interesting, the way you can manipulate someone's conscience into making them confess their... malefactions." Damn, that was smooth of him.

"Right," Mr Abernathy nods. He gives Finn a hardly-noticeable wink. He goes on to speak about symbolism and meaning behind different scenes for the rest of the period.

When the bell finally rings, I jump up with joy, slinging my bag over my shoulder. Finn smiles down at me and pats my head. "Where are we going, little one?" He laughs. Finn is 6'3", and if that isn't tall enough, he looks ginormous compared to my much shorter stature of 5'5".

"Don't call me little one, and don't ever pat my head again." I shake my head and walk towards the door.

As I'm passing the threshold, Mr Abernathy calls out to me. "Iris?" I signal for him to continue with a tilt of my head and a raise of my dark eyebrows. "You're a smart kid, don't let it go to waste by dicking around in the back of the class. The same to Odair." He just smiles and nods.

Mr Abernathy has been teaching English for quite a while. He taught my mother when she was in high school. Naturally, he sees me as a miniature version of her and tends to look out for me in school. It's quite kind, and I truly appreciate his interest.

Finn pulls me down the hallways to the front doors of the school, where most other people are headed. He pulls me over to the flagpole and turns to face me, grinning from ear to ear.

"I know that I'm great to look at, dear boy, but you're going to have to stop smiling like a maniac." I snort.

"Shut up, you narcissist." Finn shakes his head. "I'm not smiling because of you, I'm smiling because Joshua Luxford just asked me to dinner tonight. And who am I to turn down Joshua Luxford? So, naturally, I said yes."

Joshua Luxford is a very attractive senior boy. He's not Finn level attractive, but he's pretty damn attractive. He plays soccer and is a bit of a typical mysterious hot boy that you hate to love. And he's asked Finn out to dinner tonight.

"That's so great!" I smirk, my wintery blue eyes lighting up in exaltation for Finn. But my smile quickly falters. It's Friday. Friday had become a regular day for Finn and me to hang out at one of our houses and spend the night up to no good. It was our 'date night', so to speak. "But it's Friday…"

"I know, I'm sorry, but this is a really big deal. I really want him to like me, and I was hoping that you'd understand." He gives me a weak, begging smile. Of course, I cannot say no to him, he's my best friend.

"Of course, I can. But you better fill me in on all the details when you get home." I poke him in the chest with my index finger. "I mean it, Finn. Tell me everything." My serious, stony face falters and I just smile at him, excited that he's going on a date with a seemingly nice boy. Finn just smiles back at me, and we walk over to his car and climb in. He drives me home, and that is that.

 **[Author's Note: Hi! I really appreciate you reading the first chapter of my story. Please review! It encourages me to write more. :) I'm happy to say that I will be updating every day, so there will be more to this rather short first chapter. Thanks again, please review!]**


	2. Date Night: Part 2

**[Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading the first chapter! I know that it was quite short, but this one is longer. :P I hope you enjoy and remember to review because it encourages me to write more. :)]**

 **DATE NIGHT PART 2**

 **FINN POV**

When I get home from dropping Iris off, my mother is standing right by the front door. She's got a very concerned look on her face. Her thin eyebrows are furrowed together, her pink lips are pressed together thinly, and her have this glitter of grief in them. Before I can ask her what's wrong, she starts talking a mile a minute.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?" She begins circling me, her hands on my shoulders, looking me up and down for blood or bruises or broken bones. "Mrs. Zhang from across the street told me that she saw a car crash on the way home from grocery shopping, and she said that the car looked like yours, and I," She shakes her head vigorously. "I was just so worried."

"I'm fine, mom." Her face softens a bit, but her eyes look glassy. "I'm sorry that I was a little late. I had to drop Iris off, and we sat in the car and talked for a little while." I begin to head upstairs.

She sighs. "Well, I'm just glad that you're alright." She returns to the living room to watch her shows.

I get into my bedroom and throw my backpack onto my bed. My room is painted sea blue with little bubbles of lighter shades here and there. The carpet is a pale tan colour, giving an undersea illusion. My bed set is a few different shades of teal, and some of my pillows have starfish on them. My first surfboard is even hanging from the ceiling. I just love being in the water, hence Iris's nickname for me, Aqualad. Swimming is my favourite thing to do - besides hang around Iris, obviously. I want to be an olympic swimmer when I get out of high school.

My phone buzzes against my thigh. I pull it out of my pocket and see that it's an unknown number. "Pick you up at 6?" The text says. It's probably Joshua.

"Yea, sure. This is Joshua, right?" I lick my lips. I still find it unbelievable that he was the one to ask me out. I saunter over to my dresser and pulls out a pair of red jeans, and a black _Aeropostale_ tank top with aerial views of New York City on it. My phone buzzes again and I pick it up from my bed.

"Yea. Hold on, I'll send a selfie for you to put as my contact picture." Within seconds, I'm sent a picture of an egg in what I assume to be Joshua's hand. There's a smile drawn onto it. I create a contact for him and set the egg as his contact photo. His name in my phone is set to 'Egg ;)', of course.

"What a comedian." I send back to him. "I'm about to take a shower, talk to you later." I set my phone on the charger and walk into the bathroom, stripping off my clothes as I walk. Once I'm in the bathroom, I've just got on the black shorts that I wore today, a stack of clean clothes and a pile of dirty clothes. I throw the clean clothes onto the floor, set the clean ones on the sink counter. I look up into the mirror, eyeing myself. I actually don't look bad; no new acne, and my hair, which I have molded into a pompadour-like style, has held up all day. I'm glad I didn't look jacked when Joshua asked me out.

When the shower starts, the water is a bit cold, causing my spine to shake. Slowly but surely, the water heats up. Steam rises, and I begin to completely relax. Soon, I begin to tense up, though. Iris said that she was fine with me missing date night, but she seemed distant. Our hug goodbye felt too stiff, and she didn't seem to want me to leave her. She'll be fine, I decide. It's just one night. The water burns kisses into my skin. The steam hugs my body, and I feel at peace once again.

After my shower, I get dressed, do my hair the same way I did it this morning, and walk into my room. I pull on a pair of dark sandals with leather straps and walk back over to my bed. I've got 3 new messages. 2 of which are from Joshua, 1 is from Iris. I check Joshua's first.

"Hey, I'll be there in a half hour." Sent 27 minutes ago. Shit, and to think that I was going to spend another 10 minutes in the shower. "OMW." Sent 2 minutes ago. So he should be here pretty soon, if he isn't already.

I slide my phone into my pocket and grab my wallet from my backpack. I fly down the hallway and practically slide down the stairs. "Love you, mom! I'm going out. Text me if you need anything!" I call and burst out of the front door of our Georgian Colonial before she can respond. Just as I'm leaving the house, Joshua pulls into my driveway, in his black Jeep Renegade. I can hear the doors unlock and I climb into the passenger seat. The first thing that I notice is the smell. It's very strong, and very woodsy. It's nice.

"You look hot." He comments as I'm buckling my seatbelt. I look up at him. I can only describe him in one word: DAMN. He's wearing a blue flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, which compliments his muscles. His shorts are a dark charcoal grey, and they hug his thighs beautifully. I lick my lips and look into his eyes. "Ready to go?" He smiles at me, raising a dark eyebrow.

I nod. I need to stop staring. As he's pulling out of the driveway, I force myself to look forward. "Where are we going?" It had just occurred to me that I never asked.

"Movie," He looks over at me, then back at the road, then at me once more. "sound good?"

I just nod again. The drive to the theatre couldn't be slower, so I pull out my phone to see what Iris had texted me earlier. "So where are you going for tonight? ;)"

 **IRIS POV**

After Finn drives me home, we sit in his car for a half hour or so. I really don't want him to go, so I keep talking. "I'm so anxious about the test we had in chemistry. I mean, I think that I passed, but I'm pretty sure that that's all I did. How the hell am I supposed to have the entire periodic table memorized?" I whine. "How do you think that you did?"

He gives me a short answer. "Well enough." And he shrugs. He checks his phone and frowns. "I'm sorry, Iris, but I need to head home so I can get ready for tonight." Finn bites his bottom lip.

"Oh, yeah, sure. I'll see you tomorrow, I guess. You better text or call me when you get home and fill me in about the date!" We hug. I give him a half-hearted smile and get out of his car. I walk up to the front door of my bilevel home and unlock it, walking right in. The house is mostly quiet, but there's a clinging and clanging of dishes here and there coming from the kitchen. "Dad? That you?" My mother has never been much of a cook, so of course I assume that it's my father, the baker, who is muddling in the kitchen.

"Hey, Iris. Is Finn with you?" He asks.

I walk up the stairs and turn left down the hallway. My bedroom is at the end of the hall, next to my parents'. "No." I sigh. I throw my backpack onto my bed and walk back down the hallway to join my father in the kitchen.

He stops stirring and turns to me with a raised eyebrow. "But it's Friday. Don't you guys always hang out on Friday?" He's got flour in one of his eyebrows, and it's covering his hands. Although I've seen him like this a million times, it still makes me smile, usually.

"That's what I said." I sigh again. "He's going on a date. With a _boy_. A _senior boy_. A _cute senior boy_." My dad just shakes his head at me, silently laughing.

"Then I guess it's you and me tonight, kiddo." He goes back to his stirring.

"Mom isn't here?" I tilt my head to the side.

"Katniss decided that she needed a 'girls' night' with your Aunt Johanna and Madge." He shakes his head. "They're all going to get drunk at a bar and get into some kind of trouble, she's going to call me a million times, and then she'll get dropped off here by an Uber around one in the morning." I laugh.

"What are you making?" I ask, peering into the bowl he's mixing. He's whisking around a red sauce.

"Pull-apart pizza. I figured that I was going to end up alone tonight with your mother out, so I figured that junk dinner for one would be easy. You can have some if you want."

I hug him and go back down to my room, pulling out my phone. I text Finn. "So where are you going for tonight? ;)"

 **[Author's Note: Thanks for reading the second chapter of Guilty Creatures! Please review, tell me what you like about this. Tell me what you don't like, what you think I could improve on. Constructive criticism is always welcome! Thanks again. :)]**


	3. Date Night: Part 3

**{Author's Note: Thanks for reading the first two chapters! I hope that you enjoyed them! This one is a bit late, and I apologize for that. I have exams in a week, so I hope that you'll pardon me if quantity of chapters being posted slows to 1 chapter every 2-3 days for a short while. :) If you like this, please review. If you don't like this, please review. Tell me what you like and don't like, I love reviews and criticism! :) Also, i'd like to let you all know that this is the final of the"Date Night" Chapters. Without further ado, the chapter!}**

 **DATE NIGHT PART 3**

 **FINN POV**

Joshua pulls into the parking lot of a rather busy theatre, Cinema 17. When we walk in, he grabs onto my hand, locking his fingers between mine. A smirk cracks into my face and I look straight ahead of me. I can tell that he's looking at me, but I can't bring myself to look back at him. He pulls me along the hallway to get into the theatres, and an usher raises his eyebrows at us. "Tickets?" he asks. Joshua pulls two tickets out of his pocket and slides them to the usher. The tall man looks at the tickets for a few seconds, then tears them in half and hands us the ticket stubs. "Wild, Theatre 8B. Have a good day." And Joshua leads me down the hall, past the snack bar to the theatre.

I'm waiting in the theatre, watching commercials roll. Joshua is at the snack bar, getting us a large popcorn, snow caps, and drinks. Sitting in silence becomes unbearable, so I pull out my phone - something that I promised to myself that I wouldn't do - and go to text Iris. "Hey, I'm at the theatre with Joshua. Fucking shit, I never knew that commercials could be so boring. How's your night? :P"

Before I can even click my phone's screen off, she's texted me back. "At a party with lots of drugs and alcohol. ;)" That's funny.

"You're fucking hilarious. You're so hilarious."

"I know, right? I should do stand up! How's your night going so far?"

A familiar voice pipes up. "Who're you talking to?" My head snaps up and I see Joshua's smiling face. He's carrying a large bucket of popcorn with snow caps on top and two drinks in his other arm.

"Oh, no one. It's just Iris." He nods his head. I put my phone back away and he sits down, sliding our drinks into their respective cup holders. "Wow, that's a lot of popcorn." I mumble. The bucket is at least twice the size of my head.

"Right? I usually don't get large, but holy shit, this thing is huge!" There's a pause, and he smirks. "That's what she said." He whispers. I begin to laugh so hard that I snort, causing me to laugh even more. Joshua seems to lose his shit at the sound of my snort-laugh and begins laughing as well.

As the movie begins, we settle into our seats. He hands me the snowcaps that I requested and rests his big, warm hand on my knee. It's not uncomfortable or unwelcome; it just feels natural. However, this is not to say that I don't notice it. I 100% notice it. I notice it more when his hand slowly slides further up my thigh. Somehow, the popcorn is finished before the movie even reaches its climax. By the end of the movie, he's got his hand resting about halfway up my thigh, his fingers on the inside of my thigh, very slowly rubbing circles into my leg. My skin is on fire beneath his touch, and he's the only thing that I can focus on. The credits roll, and the lights in the theatre come up. Joshua lifts his hand from my leg and stretches, then yawns. "That was a good movie, huh?"  
I nod. "Good choice for a first date, Luxford."

"I'm a bit of an expert, what can I say?" He brags.

We leave the theatre and he drives me home. When we get to my house, he parks on the street in front of my house instead of in the driveway. He turns his car off and his voice becomes more serious than before. "I'd like to see you again, Finn. I really enjoyed tonight." I just nod. He puts his hand on my thigh like before. I lean into him a bit, and he meets me the rest of the way in a gentle, but lustful kiss. His lips are soft. His hand comes around behind my head and pulls me in further. After a few seconds of this, he leans away, and I sit back up. I smile over at him. I want to do it again.

"I should be getting home soon." He says, glancing at the time on his phone. It's 11:42. I nod and get out of the car.

"Let's do it again sometime." I say before closing the door. I prance gleefully up to the front door and unlock it. I close it behind me very slowly and creep up the stairs to my room. The house is dark, so I assume that my mother is asleep. I collapse onto my bed and pull out my phone.

"Date was great! We saw Wild at Cinema 17. Good movie. His hand was on my thigh the entire time, just resting there, then we made out in his car for a bit." I ultimately decide not to add 'I considered inviting him inside.' and send Iris the text. My phone goes onto the bedside table and I plug it into the charger. I fall asleep in minutes.

 **IRIS POV**

I'm laying in bed watching episodes of _Gossip Girl_ , a show that I hate to love for hours before I get another text from Finn. It's past 9, and apparently his movie hasn't started yet.

"Hey, I'm at the theatre with Joshua. Fucking shit, I never knew that commercials could be so boring. How's your night? :P"

I quickly text him back. "At a party with lots of drugs and alcohol. ;)" Of course this is a joke, I hate alcohol and I definitely don't party unless I'm with Finn. I'm really quite a shy person unless Finn is alongside me, bringing out my inner animal.

"You're fucking hilarious. You're so hilarious."

"I know, right? I should do stand up! How's your night going so far?"

He doesn't respond. I continuously check my phone for his reply. I even restart it just in case the message just wasn't loading. After about ten minutes, I give up and go back to watching _Gossip Girl_.

It's a quarter until midnight before he texts me again. I quickly unlock my phone and read his message. I almost drop my phone. "Date was great! We saw Wild at Cinema 17. Good movie. His hand was on my thigh the entire time, just resting there, then we made out in his car for a bit." I'm excited for him, but sad at the same time. I know that Finn isn't just leaving me, but I also know that eventually, he'll stop prioritizing me, and I'll get less and less time with him. It's selfish, I know, but he's my best friend.

I sigh and send him a smiley face and "Congratulations on snagging the hottie. Let's get together tomorrow, you owe me." before setting my phone down. I close my laptop and go to sleep.

 **{Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Please review, I love criticism! Feel free to PM me or whatever. Thanks again! :D }**


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